This invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus and method.
There have been known the ECR CVD for depositing thin films on a substrate. In this deposition method, a substrate may be placed in a vacuum chamber apart from the resonating space and a thin film such as an amorphous film is formed on the substrate by virtue of a divergent magnetic field induced in the vacuum chamber.
The ECR CVD can be performed in combination with other known deposition methods such as heated filament CVD, chemical transportation method, plasma CVD making use of a high frequency power at 13.56 MHz, microwave-assisted CVD. In accordance with this method, a reactive gas is confined and excited by supplying a microwave under a magnetic field in accordance with the electron cycrotron resonance. The excited reactive gas is drifted to a substrate which is located at a position remote from the resonating space. At the remote position, the excited gas is deposited on the substrate or attacks the substrate to effect anisotropic etching. The pressure in the chamber during process has been maintained at a relatively low pressure, e.g. of the order of 10.sup.-4 Torr. Because of this, it is very difficult to form a highly crystallized film such as a diamond film and to choose the process condition with a broad flexibility.